Rye seed as fodder

[3riverschick]

Give/sell the rye away on craigslist or freecycle. Then go to Tractor Supply and buy a bag of Plotspike Forage Oats.
( 25 lbs. for circa 19.99 and 50 lbs for 24.99. ) The 50 lb. bag makes hundreds of lbs. of sprouts. Historically, sprouted
oats have been one of the very best sprouted grains to feed poultry. 1 thru 3 days old, the sprouts are called grain feed.
They are fed as part of the daily ration. On the 4th day, a nutritional change takes place in the spouts which turns it from
grain feed to green feed. Now green feed has some great plusses. It is used to bring the hens into lay and to help the
boys produce more robust sperm...which helps them produce more robust chicks. Plotspike Forage Oats aren't GMO.
They were produced in circa 2002 at Louisiana State University by specialized linebreeding. There is no chemical coating
on the grain to prevent it from sprouting.
Chicks older than 1 week can be fed diced sprouts. They are fresh and nutritional. They also need chick grit when eating
anything other than chick feed.
Best Regards,
Karen in western PA, USA

 

[buckbye]

Thanks for the info, 3riverschick! But I know I read somewhere on BYC (where misinfo unfortunately spreads like wildfire ahhhh) that oats take on a slimy texture and can clog up your drainage system. Is that incorrect?

 

[3riverschick]

Thanks for the info, 3riverschick! But I know I read somewhere on BYC (where misinfo unfortunately spreads like wildfire ahhhh) that oats take on a slimy texture and can clog up your drainage system. Is that incorrect?

I don't know about the drainage thing. I never had a problem with that. However, they can get slimy if you sprout them incorrectly. Or if they have a chemical coating on the seeds. Or if someone is using a huge jar and filling it with so much seed that the standard rinse isn't thoroughly rinsing the sprouts so they go bad. I use salsa or spaghetti sauce size jars and more of them instead of one huge jar. That way I can stage the growth cycle so every day I have fresh sprouts. One should never try and "save" sprouts in the frig for the next day. They are delicate things and might go bad. Feed straight from the jar, day by day. I feed aboutone jar a day to my 13 birds. 1 cubic inch per bird per day. So I start a jar every day for 5 days. That way, after 5 days, I always have a jar of 5 day old sprouts coming due every day to feed as "green feed".
I use the rinse method with my sprouted oats as my permanent flock only has 13 birds in it. . Get a nice big spaghetti sauce size jar(s) whose mouth is the same size as the jar. A yd. of plain burlap. Check at the fabric store that it is plain old burlap. And some big rubber bands.
1.Fill the jar one inch full with the forage oat seeds. This amount rinses easily
and will expand to fill the whole jar.
2. Cut a layer of burlap to make a lid and rubber band it to the top of the jar.
3. Every 12 hours fill the jar with room temperature water, swoosh it
around for 10 secs. or so and pour it back out. I like to do this twice.
4. That's it. Easy Peasey. You will see the oats start to sprout in a day. Just keep them going for 4 days and then feed. You'll be very surprised how big they expand, smile. That's why I use a jar with the mouth no smaller than the width of the jar. otherwise the sprouts get impacted against the rim and won't slide out easily.

Now about the slimy. The sprouts should always smell fresh and feel crisp and clean. If they are grown too long (say over 7 days) or miss their rinsing schedule, they can go bad. Then they will smell foul and feel slimy. Do not feed, just throw them out or they can make your birds sick. I have never had a batch go bad. I keep my jars in the kitchen and just rinse them at breakfast and dinnertime. I have not had my oat water feel slimy when I rinse the oats. Now I am using forage oats, not feed oats. Maybe that is part of the difference? Feed oats are the oats farmers feed their animals. Forage oats are the seeds that farmers and hunters plant for the animals to eat in the pasture and deer feed plots. Some types of oats used to have a chemical coating on them to prevent mold. It was a problem when trying to sprout oats because the chemical prevented the sprouting and the oats just went slimy and spoiled instead. Plotspike makes a special note in their literature there is no coating on their forage oats.
Best Regards,
Karen

 

[DaveOmak]

D'oh!
But again, this is referring to grain. I'd like to find out if the same applies to days-old sprouts. And wouldn't a drop of peroxide in the water take care of the ergot?
What site was that from, Percheron chick?

Give the rye grain to someone who has a mill/grinder for bread making... For what the rye cost you, is it worth it to screw up your chickens....